Take a look at this photo of a former choir boy…Well, actually, I don’t know if he was a choir boy but I do know that he was once a student at Visitation Grade School and later Rockhurst High School and is from a highly regarded Visitation family.
As an adult, however, he has been neck deep in the payday loan business.
Tim Coppinger, in photo from Visitation Catholic Church 1985 directory
At least two other former Visitation boys, Vince and Chris Hodes, have also been involved in that seamy business.
I’ve been asking myself how does this equate — kids from bedrock Visitation families going into the business of making fortunes at the expense of poor people?
I understand that greed is one of the Seven Deadly Sins and that it can strike anyone. But it’s still hard for me to reconcile.
For the record, I don’t think I’ve ever met any of the three; I’m at least 20 years older than they are. But I am familiar with their parents. Tim Coppinger’s father is a respected physician, now mostly retired; his mother an anchor at Visitation Church. The Hodes family has a very successful plumbing supply business, now owned and operated by a third-generation family member.
Several members of the Hodes family have been major contributors to Visitation Church, particularly to a $13-million-plus renovation and expansion of the church, 51st and Main, about 10 years ago.
Two sources told me that Tim Coppinger contributed the money several years ago for construction of a new running track — Coppinger Family Track — at St. Teresa’s Academy, 55th and Main.
My guess is that ill-gotten money paid for that track. And, to me, that raises a secondary issue: Did the St. Teresa’s administration and board of directors know how Tim Coppinger had made his money? If so, did they ever consider rejecting the money?
Earlier this week, a Kansas City Star editorial made note of the “awkward twist” through which some of the dirty money was later directed to philanthropic causes.
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Tim Coppinger is now a defendant in a Federal Trade Communication lawsuit that says he and another man, Frampton T. Rowland III, were in the business of “bilking cash-strapped consumers out of as much money as possible.”
In recently unsealed court filings, the FTC alleges that Coppinger and Rowland used personal financial information about people to make phony loans that consumers hadn’t agreed to — and that some had never applied for. The defendants then made one-time electronic deposits in the “borrowers” bank accounts and began debiting the accounts indefinitely for biweekly “finance charges” of $60 to $90. But the principal amount — usually $150 to $300 — never went away, according to the lawsuit.
Then, there are the Hodes brothers.
In a December 2013 story, the Pitch said that Vince Hodes led an outfit called the Vianney Fund, which in 2010 sought $20 million from investors, with a $100,000 minimum buy-in.
The Pitch quoted the firm’s initial offering as saying, in part:
“We intend to focus the majority of the Company’s efforts and investments on funding loans to payday-lending companies in both the retail and Internet markets. However, the Company may also extend credit to other Subprime Borrowers, including check-cashing, rent-to-own, subprime mortgage, and pawn shops.”
“In other words,” The Pitch concluded, “Vianney is an equal-opportunity exploiter of poor people.”
Here’s what that same Pitch story said about Chris Hodes:
“From a Brookside building at 601 East 63rd Street, he presides over a variety of hard-to-pin-down companies. Based on lawsuits filed in recent years, he is likely very much immersed in the online lending industry.
“In 2010, the Arkansas Attorney General sued Arrowhead Investments and Galaxy Marketing, as well as Christopher Hodes (whom it alleged to be the controller of these two companies), for lending over the Internet to Arkansans at interest rates of 782 percent. Arkansas law caps consumer lending rates at 17 percent. The companies settled and promised not to lend in the state again.”
Seven-hundred eighty-two percent!
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I brought up these guys’ family backgrounds because that is a significant part of the disconnect. Also, this isn’t just any parish, it’s Visitation, one of the wealthiest parishes per capita in the Kansas City area, and certainly the wealthiest per capita in the city.
I understand that parents cannot be held responsible for what their adult children do, but I wonder what the parents think about these particular sons’ notions of “success.”
Let’s make one thing, clear, though: These men are an embarrassment to their families, to Visitation and to their community.
That same KC Star editorial said:
“To its chagrin, the Kansas City area has become a hotbed for abusive online payday loan operations…payday loan operations are toxic enterprises, and it’s to Kansas City’s detriment that they received the financial and technical support to thrive here.”
It couldn’t have been done without the willing participation of people who tossed aside their moral compasses for the sake of many big paydays. Now, as governments move in to put a stop to their wrongdoings, let them bask in shame.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
If you ever go up to Fort Yates on the Standing Rock reservation and go to the grocery store you’l find sitting above the shelves a collection of junk from black and white TVs that don’t work to Lord only knows what. Most of it never leaves the store ever.
That collection of junk is the “collateral” for the food the familes need after they’ve spent all the money on the checks they receive. When the new checks come in the grocer takes his cut and then gives the family what’s left and the cycle repeats itself.
Is it exploitive? Who else would give them a loan? Who else would make sure they got food until the next check arrived? Absent the grocer’s financial contributions, many familie would go hungry.
Same thing here.You’re talking about people who have no credit because they are a gigantic risk and yet without these risky loans many would go hungry or go without other necessities.
If you feel so strongly about this, go down there and set up shop right next to them and offer loans at reasonable rates and see how long you stay in business.
I’m talking about breaking the law.
The FTC lawsuit accuses Coppinger and Rowland of conducting a “deceptive and unfair online payday lending scheme, which is replete with unlawful practices.”
The Arkansas case accuses Christopher Hodes of lending over the Internet at interest rates of 782 percent — slightly above the state’s legal limit of 17 percent.
Gotcha. Not sure if the grocer was legal either, but people knew enough to leave him alone. However 782 is certainly a tad high isn’t it? The question with these things is where is the line from where they cease to be a necessary evil and are simply destructive and completely exploitive.
I also witnessed another “scandal” in tribal court on the reservation. At the time I was working as a collecter/office manager for a lawyer friend who was also the tribal attorney for the Standing Rock reservation.
One cold November morning we were down on the reservation while Russ handled his duties as prosecutor. We were sitting in the judge’s office drinking coffee when the bailiff brought about a dozen men in to the courtroom. I started to get up when the judge headed for the door, but he motioned me back to my chair, walked over to the door, opened it and said “You all have 120 days”. he returned to his chair and we continued our conversation.
After court I asked Russ what that was all about and he said all the defendants were habitual alcoholics who had been arrested for public intoxication. As winter progressed, the sentences were reduced to 90 days, 60 days, etc until the jail was full and then the prisoners would be transferred to the Jamestown Hospital for “rehab”. Once spring broke loose their sentences would be terminated and they would be released until the following winter.
Now, you can complain about the lack of due process and the differential sentencing and all that crap but without that “injustice” most of those guys would never have survived the winter. Many would be face down drunk in a snow drift by 10:30 in the morning and by noon would have been popcicles. The food in the jail was excellent and the treatment as Jamestown also was humaneand respectful. So go be a do gooder and demand justce, but you’ll be responsible for the deaths of dozens of men before spring.
See, the thing is, if regular people could make livable wages and not be forced to live paycheck to paycheck, maybe they wouldn’t be forced to go to payday loan shops for loans.
It’s expensive to live even an impoverished lifestyle today. Payday loan shops prey on those people who are doing OK until something happens — the car needs a repair that costs more than their two-week paycheck or their kid needs an x-ray or a pipe bursts in the bathroom — and they need cash fast.
The poor aren’t the demons in this scenario — folks who engage in usury are. And surely, during their years of religious classes at Vis, they learned that usury is frowned upon.
All you children, listen to this right-thinking mother…
What these men have done flies in the face of Catholic doctrine which directs us to have compassion and mercy for the sick, poor and suffering. Their actions are sickening.
Amen!
Then shut them down. Completely.
Yes, shut them down. Any arguments about these families going hungry? Send your check to any food pantry of your choice. Screwing them over in the name of compassion is a joke.
Put your boots on the ground and work for social justice.
These scammers need our prayers.
Social Justice sounds a lot like hand-outs to me. I think Social Development would be more beneficial.
Of course you wouldn’t get as many people lining up to learn job skills, budgeting skills, or even how to make use of a bank account.
I already make contributions to “Social Justice” in the form of my federal income tax withholding.
I spent enough time in the church to figure out how these people can do what they do and still sleep at night.
In the end we are all sinners and fall short of the glory…and Jesus died to absolve us of our sins…so sleep well knowing that all is forgiven and even though you were born a sinner, you will still be accepted in heaven as long as you ask forgiveness.
I stopped going to church, not because of God, but his fan club.
I don’t believe it’s quite that easy, Jason; I think these people are going to be in for a nasty surprise.
If they are why you stopped going to church then they’ve won and you’re losing. I’m sure God misses you.
I don’t believe it is that easy either…but some people do.
Never said I gave up on God. ;)
He knows where to find me and I know where to find him.
No, I know you didn’t give up on him — just church. Glad you’re seeking him.
I understand one or more of these guys were big contributors to a capital campaign at St. Ann’s Catholic Church, 72nd and Mission Road, Prairie Village…If their plan is to try to clear the moral slate through charitable contributions, I’m dubious about the results.
Exactly, Christianity is a religion of grace, not works, but the works should be a reflection of the grace and one’s relationship with Christ.
The Feds are not going to bring charges against anyone for being immoral. The Feds will come after you for breaking the law and bilking thousands of people for your own personal gain. Period.
“Using consumer data purchased from third parties, Defendants have falsely represented that consumers agreed to their online payday loans, and then automatically debited finance charges from consumers’ bank accounts without their consent. Second, Defendants have misrepresented the cost of their loans — even to those consumers who actually agreed to the loans in the first place. Instead of charging consumers the amount they disclosed (the principal plus a one-time finance charge), Defendants have extracted finance charges every two weeks indefinitely, without applying any of the payments to the principal. Third, Defendants have consistently violated statutory requirements relating to the disclosure of loan terms and recurring electronic fund transfers.”
God will forgive them. But don’t worry, the courts won’t.
That’s how it’s supposed to work, right? Amen to that! ;-)
That is not Chris Hodes pictured; it’s Billy.
Thank you, OhNow. I have taken down the Hodes photo…Taking a closer look at the family photo in the parish directory, I can see that the family members were identified from right to left, not the customary left to right. Thus, my error. My apologies to Billy Hodes, whose picture I mistakenly included in the post.